Energy savings reaped in N.O.

A year after the launch of its $11 million citywide energy-efficiency program, New Orleans officials and executives at Entergy New Orleans say the program has made strides in cutting down on power consumption and helping save money for thousands of local homeowners and businesses. More than 8,580 businesses and individuals participated in the Energy Smart initiative since last April, according to Entergy, which submitted an annual report about the program's progress to the New Orleans City Council earlier this month. Entergy estimates that the efforts helped cut electricity use by more than 15 million kilowatt-hours, enough to power 1,300 homes for an entire year.

The program provides an opportunity for customers to receive an in-home energy audit to help spot ways to improve efficiency, and gives residential and commercial customers cash incentives for making improvements aimed at lowering their power consumption. By the numbers, it led to more than 600 home energy audits being done.

"The thing that was really important to me is that it made people aware of ways that they could conserve and they could work to make sure their utility bills were low," City Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, the chairwoman of the council's Utility Committee, said about the program.

The effort, which had been in the works for four years, has been administered by Clearesult Consulting Inc., a Texas energy management company that managed a similar but smaller 18-month energy-efficiency program, called Quick Start, for Entergy New Orleans.

Among those eligible for cash rebates: homeowners who install cost-effective energy-saving measures; small-business customers with peak demand of less than 100 kilowatts per month; and commercial, industrial and government customers with peak demand of 100 kilowatts or more per month. The energy improvements come at a discounted cost to homeowners and businesses: An in-home energy audit can be performed for as little as $35, and the program offers a $75 rebate toward an air-conditioning tune-up performed by a participating contractor, as well as rebates for insulation, air sealing and a handful of other energy efficiency measures.

Meanwhile, some customers heeded the advice they received during the assessments and took on suggested improvement projects, such as tuning-up air conditioners, installing ceiling and wall insulation, sealing ducts and installing compact fluorescent light bulbs.

The program proved so popular that Entergy officials warned in April that it was likely to run out of money for its first year ahead of schedule. Instead, it finished about $180,000 under budget, according to the filing.

Lana Lovick, manager of regulatory and environmental affairs at Entergy New Orleans, said the utility expects more customers to get on board this year. "The word's getting out," she said.

Entergy and city officials also say the program was successful in jump-starting development of a "green workforce," with more than 60 local contractors becoming trained to complete the work.

Lovick said the contractors can do "as little or as much as they choose, and some of them really choose too push the program heavily and use it as a marketing tool for their business."

Some contractors submitted hundreds of rebates through the program, including General Heating and Air Conditioning in New Orleans, which filed 434 for air conditioning tune-ups, according to Entergy.

Customers seemed equally impressed: Out of 162 responses, all but a few participants reported the experience was "good or excellent," according to Entergy's filing with the city.

"For a city like New Orleans, you have utility rates that are some of the lowest in the country, and a lot of times that can impede energy-efficiency programs because people don't really have the incentive to install the measures," Lovick said. "And so I think the success of the program really speaks for itself."

Casey Roberts, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said she is optimistic that the program can be extended past its initial three-year window, and said "a lot of the programs exceeded expectations, and they got more savings from less money than they had anticipated."

Roberts said one possibility is that the city could look to incorporate funding as part of its integrated resource planning process, which is required by the New Orleans City Council in an effort to invite public participation in working with utility companies on reducing community demand for power.

For its first year, Roberts said the program grabbed much of the low-hanging fruit, like distributing free compact fluorescent light bulbs, which is "great bang for your buck," but added that she would like to see the effort make a bigger dent in persuading customers to bundle improvements instead of scattering measures years apart.

"All of the light bulbs in your house don't use as much energy as your air conditioner, and though it would cost more to do attic insulation, you would have a greater amount of savings, but it would take you longer to pay back that investment," she said. "If you combine attic insulation with lighting, then your total investment payback period is lower than if you first did lighting, then a year later you did the attic insulation."

Richard Thompson can be reached at rthompson@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3496.